I call it “disaster theology.” That’s when some sanctimoniously-enraged militant religionist declares his/her deity either caused something big and terrible to happen — or more passively, merely sat back and allowed it to happen — because said deity is just as furious about something as the religionist him/herself. (Religionists and their deities, you see, always seem to think in lockstep. Convenient, huh?)

It’s something one sees pretty much every time there’s a disaster of some kind. That disaster can be natural, like an earthquake, or man-made, like a massacre. It pretty much doesn’t matter what it is … religionists will always latch onto any kind of widely-reported awful news and use it as “evidence” that their deity is upset, and won’t tolerate any more of humanity’s insolent shit.

Religious Right culture warriors David and Jason Benham published a video Monday in which they claimed “God is speaking” through hurricanes to send a message that America should repent for “breaching the boundaries of God” in regard to gender identity, gay marriage and homosexuality in general.…

The twins’ tie-in to the 9/11 terror attacks appears to mirror the playbook of their father, Flip Benham, the former head of the anti-abortion, anti-gay protest group Operation Save America, who has claimed he warned America that legal abortion would result in the 9/11 attacks and continues to use 9/11 as a warning that legal abortion will result in the further wrath of God.

The Benhams must be using a broken calendar, because it didn’t hit the US on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks; it made landfall early in the morning of the 10th of September, one day prior. Or, maybe September 11th on our calendar is September 10th on the Almighty’s — because, after all, we know his/her/its sense of time runs different than our own. Or something. I mean, who the fuck knows?

At any rate, it seems odd to me that, if the Almighty is upset about something his creations are doing, s/he/it seems powerless to just fucking say it to our faces and in words that make his/her/its wishes clear. As a supposedly omnipotent creator-deity, s/he/it certainly would be capable of doing so … but if the Benhams, and an enormous number of other sanctimonious wingnuts, are to be believed, that’s somehow beyond his/her/its power.

Or something.

I dunno, maybe this is yet another of those things that cold-hearted, cynical, godless agnostic heathens like myself aren’t allowed to understand. Right?